


Losing His Cool

by Miko



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Past Child Abuse, Snart-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-04 02:13:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6636952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miko/pseuds/Miko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mick doesn't know what the hell to make of the changes in Snart since the Flash came to the city, but he knows one thing for sure. He never expected to see Snart lose his cool.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Losing His Cool

The change happened right in front of his eyes. Not fast, no. It wasn’t a snap your fingers kinda thing. Just fast enough to notice. Even for Mick, who knew he was oblivious when it came to people.

Fire was so much prettier to watch than people.

Snart, though. There was nothing fiery about him. Calm, collected, controlled… Mick refused to play his new game and say ‘cold’. All the way back when they’d met, the little twink had already been stone-faced. Didn’t matter how hard he got hit, how bad he was hurt. Nothing got under his skin, past his defences. The only emotion he ever showed was anger, and even that was calculated most of the time.

It was why Mick stepped in when one of the other kids in Juvie pulled a shiv. Not a trace of fear showed in Snart’s eyes. Mick could respect a guy with balls of solid brass.

They’d been enemies as much as friends over the years. Too extreme, in two extremes. Hell, they’d called it quits so often Mick had lost count. Snart threatened to shoot him half a dozen times when Mick screwed up his precious fucking plans. Mick did his share of the threatening when Snart forgot Mick was his _partner_ , not a hired thug.

Somehow, when push came to shove, they were always at each other’s backs. The only one allowed to threaten either of them was the other.

Through it all, Snart never lost his… ah, fuck it. Snart never lost his cool.

Until the Flash came.

Not the first time Mick saw Snart obsess over something. Usually it was a heist, six fucking months of planning like the guy had nothing better to do. Or maybe got off on it. _Every_ detail had to be perfect. Always. Backup plans for his backup plans, every contingency covered.

This time when Snart came to end their latest spat, something was different. Voice a notch too loud, gestures a bit too big. A gleam in his eyes like he only got when they were about to pull off another near-perfect heist. The new toys were worth getting excited over, sure, but it didn’t take long to figure out it wasn’t the cold gun that turned Snart’s smirk dangerously close to a smile. It was the Flash.

First time Snart’s plan fell through and the Flash didn’t show, Mick shrugged it off. Plans didn’t always work.That was what backups were for. At least on the second attempt he got to burn shit, and they actually stole something.

In front of the cops, the difference got more obvious. Snart had a lilt in his voice that had never been there before, a drawl stretching his words. He postured and gestured. He made fucking puns. Mick was the one who did that, not Snart. He was acting like… well, like he was _acting_. Playing a part. Why?

Not until they switched gears abruptly and kidnapped the girl did he realize that his partner was _winging it_. The girl wasn’t a backup plan; Snart was making shit up as he went.

It felt like the ground fell out from under Mick’s feet. He damn near dropped the gun in shock, woulda blown them both up. His entire worldview was shaken. What next, fire wouldn’t burn?

Making that fucking video was even worse. Snart was grandstanding, putting on a show. Dramatic. Overblown. Pure theatrics. It made no goddamn sense.

Once their ‘ransom’ demand was on the air he confronted Snart, out of the girl’s hearing. “What the hell was that?”

His partner arched an eyebrow in that smug, superior way he had. It always made Mick want to punch him, and it had only gotten worse with the act. “That was the _plan_ , Mick. We’re going to draw the Flash to us.” He drawled the words like he’d been doing in the video, even though it was just the two of them.

“Not _that_.” Growling, Mick stabbed a finger into Snart’s chest. Still bundled up in that ridiculous parka, still wearing the stupid goggles, still smirking like he knew a secret Mick didn’t. “ _You_.”

The smirk widened. “Well, if we’re going to make our TV debut, might as well live it up. Captain Cold has a reputation to build.”

“Captain Cold? Are you shitting me right now?” Mick stared at him in disbelief. “You’re planning to keep that stupid name? That freeze ray fucked up something in your head.”

Snart laughed. He fucking _laughed_. Had Mick ever heard him laugh before? “It’s a new world, Mick. The rules have changed. Gotta be on your toes, stay with the times, up your game… play it _cool_.”

The truth finally dawned on him. Snart was having _fun_.

For the second time in one day, the world turned itself upside down. Leonard Snart playing around was such a foreign concept that Mick didn’t know what to do with it. For all that he’d spent decades telling the guy to get the stick outta his ass, now that it was happening Mick wasn’t so sure he liked the results.

When the Flash showed to meet their demand, Mick’s theory was borne out. Snart was grinning as he fired his gun, like a kid on Christmas morning unwrapping the best present ever. Even smiled right at Mick, inviting him to share his glee, or maybe too excited to contain it. Fucking creepy. Felt like the guy beside him was someone Mick didn’t even know.

After Lisa busted them out on their way to prison, Snart was ‘in character’ as often as not. At first, only when he was in the idiotic costume that protected him from the effects of his freeze gun. Idiotic because he didn’t _have_ the gun anymore. Didn’t matter. If he was wearing the parka, he was Cold, not Snart.

Soon enough the parka was set aside, too hot without the gun to keep him cool, but the goggles appeared to be enough to keep him buried in the act. Then he started ditching the goggles, annoyed by the unnecessary block to his vision, but still didn’t ditch the character along with them. 

Only time he was mostly serious was when he was planning their next job. Job, not heist; all they were stealing was another of the Flash’s friends. Since he wanted his gun back as much as Snart did, Mick went along with it. That weapon was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen, other than the flames themselves. 

Least this time Snart _was_ planning, his usual neurotic tendencies making a comeback. Weeks spent tailing the kid who’d invented the gun, learning his schedule, finding out who his friends and family were, taking note of when the Flash was most likely to be away.

Over the course of those weeks Lisa went from baffled, to bemused, to a sort of affectionate exasperation with her brother. She put up with his theatrics, even encouraged them, to Mick’s disgust. He’d seen her smile plenty of times, pretty poison, but not the indulgent way she was smiling at Snart now.

“You know something I don’t?” Mick asked her one night when Snart was absorbed in the notes he’d made about his plans. Out of hearing but not out of sight. Wearing the fucking goggles again, like a lunatic. “What the hell is going on?”

Pressing her palms together, Lisa tapped her fingertips against her mouth. It did a poor job of hiding her grin as she watched her brother. “I do believe Leo is finally coming out to play.”

“Leo?” Mick stared at her. Yeah, it could be a nickname for Leonard, but not one he’d ever heard Snart use. Only Len – anyone other than his sister who tried to get cute and call him Lenny ended up regretting it.

Wincing, Lisa flapped a hand at him as if to shush him. “Don’t ever call him that, he’ll kill you. For real. Even I wouldn’t dare, not to his face.”

That was pretty damn serious. Protecting his sister was the one thing that could make Snart lose his cool, always had been. He’d _never_ lay a hand on her.

Lisa was still watching her brother, complex emotions Mick couldn’t read playing across her face. When she spoke again, her voice was serious. “You’ve seen his scars.”

It wasn’t a question, but Mick nodded anyway. He’d seen them, one of the few people alive who had. Snart refused to wear short sleeves, let alone strip off his shirt, no matter how hot it got. Still, as often as they’d been ‘mates, room and cell both, he couldn’t avoid Mick seeing. 

Likewise, despite the flirty, sexy way Lisa dressed, she never wore wide, low-necked tops, either. Didn’t take much to guess she had marks of her own. They’d never told him the full story, but they didn’t need to. Mick might be slow when it came to people sometimes, but he could read between the lines.

“This…” her tone softened again as her brother chuckled at something in his notes. “This is more like he was when we were little. Before our father beat it out of him, and he learned to hide everything he felt. So long ago I’d forgotten, until I saw him being Captain Cold. Playful and flamboyant.”

“Fucking flaming, more like.” Mick had seen drag queens with less attitude than Snart had these days.

“That a problem?” Lisa cast a sharp glance his way, reminding him neither of the Snart siblings were people you wanted to cross. Lisa was as protective of her brother as he was of her.

Mick grunted. “I don’t give a shit if he fucks men or women or goats. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the job. He’s unstable.”

“That’s rich, coming from you.”

“Even I can tell it’d be a bad idea if we’re _both_ unstable.”

Grimacing, Lisa tilted her head to acknowledge his point. “He’s feeling his way into it, that’s all. He’ll settle down once he’s got it figured out. Give him time.”

Turned out she was right. Once they had their new, improved weapons and Snart made his deal with the Flash, things went back to almost normal. The quiet, rigid Snart appeared to be gone for good, but if anything his plans were better now. And yet, when things did inevitably go wrong he was far more flexible than in the past, able to adapt more quickly. It meant Mick got away with breaking the plan and burning things far more often, something he wasn’t going to argue against.

Far from being annoyed by the Flash’s rule against killing, Snart seemed to take it as a challenge to his skills. A giant game, an endless round of one-up, and if he minded losing it didn’t show other than his increased fervour for the next round. Constantly planning and strategizing how to deal with the punk, yeah, that was good. But they’d come out of several jobs now with nothing to show for it because Snart was like a dog seeing a squirrel, completely distractible. It was obvious he didn’t care about not making the score.

After the third time, Mick was sick of it. He cornered Snart in their hideout, literally shoved him into a corner and loomed over him, though he knew Snart wasn’t intimidated by him. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why do you keep acting like this? You’ve lost your fucking mind.”

“Wrong with me?” Snart’s eyes flashed with anger, and suddenly the stone-cold killer with a heart of ice was back. Only the intensity was dialled up to eleven, like he’d mashed up the man he’d been and the man he’d become and this was the result. “I don’t know, Mick. Why don’t _you_ tell me what you think is _wrong_ with me.”

There was challenge and fury and disdain in his expression, but also… hurt. For the first time since Mick had met him, Snart actually looked hurt, though he tried to hide it. Like the words had stabbed him through an unexpected hole in his emotional armour.

Pretty much proved Mick’s point for him, that he’d let himself go soft with this whole Captain Cold act.

It also reminded him of Lisa’s words, that he’d been like this until his father had beaten the hard into him.

Shit. Maybe she was right. Captain Cold wasn’t an act. It was the excuse Snart needed to find his way back to himself. Why else would the accusation that there was something wrong with him punch so hard?

Mick could be a lousy friend and he knew it. Some things, though, you just didn’t fuck with. Lines you didn’t cross, unless you never wanted to come back.

He growled, but the words he said weren’t the ones he’d planned to say. Those he knew he’d _never_ say, now. “You need to get your head outta your ass when it comes to the Flash, partner. We’re not making a penny, and you’re gonna get us both tossed back in the cooler.”

The challenge was still there, but the fury eased off. Then Snart blinked and snorted, like he’d almost missed the pun. The closest Mick would, could, come to saying he was sorry. 

Hidden hurt was replaced with equally buried gratitude, barely enough showing for Mick to catch. Apology accepted.

“Yeah, yeah. Your fault as much as mine. If you’d stick to the damn _plan_ things wouldn’t keep getting too hot to handle.” Snart’s drawl was in full force, head tilted in that cocky way he had now, eyebrow arched and lips tilted in a smirk.

Mick shoved him again for good measure, then turned away. He needed to fix his gun, Flash had done a number on it. No question they’d be going up against him in the future, and the guns were the only thing that levelled the playing field.

After all, when Captain Cold hit the city again, he’d need Heat Wave by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> So this is basically my attempt to make sense of the _massive_ changes in characterization through the first three episodes Snart is in. We watched all the Snart episodes back to back recently, and it really highlighted how incredibly different he is when he's first introduced. Wentworth Miller did an interview where he mentions he went into the role expecting Snart to be a very calm, cold, logical guy, but over time the writers kept making him more flamboyant, so he ran with it. The result is that to me it seems like Snart is creating a persona for himself, and having great fun doing so. 
> 
> Miller also mentioned the nasal voice he picked for Snart unfortunately is really hard on his throat when he's shouting, something he never thought Snart would do when he first played him. Poor guy.


End file.
